• Speaking in the European Parliament Plenary session in Brussels during a debate on the European Union’s budget for 2018, UKIP MEP Nigel Farage expressed his dismay with Theresa May’s offer of 50 billion pounds as part of the divorce proceedings.

Nigel Farage MEP stated:

“Let’s hear it for Commission Oettinger, the German Commissioner in charge of the European Union budget, you sir are having a very good day. Christmas has come early.”

“Certainly the line that I’ve always taken is that no deal is better than a bad deal and in this case it’s worse than a bad deal, we don’t even know if we’re going to get a trade deal in return.”

“Even if there was a firm offer of tariff free access to the EU Single Market it would not be worth the 50 billion payment.”

• Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire MEP, Mike Hookem, has launched a petition to force the Government to remove fisheries from Theresa May’s ‘Great Repeal Bill’, saying, “the inclusion of the Common Fisheries Policy into UK law is an abject betrayal of Brexit.”

Mr Hookem, UKIP’s fisheries spokesman, launched his crusade after George Eustice announced in the House of Commons that ‘technical measures’ of the CFP will be included in Theresa May’s flagship Repeal Bill.

Speaking from Brussels, Mr Hookem said, “the response to the petition has been amazing so far, with over 6,000 signatures in the first 48 hours. However, we still have a long way to go if we are going to get the 100,000 signatures we need to force a Commons debate.

•The state of care across hospitals, care homes, home care, and GP surgeries is taking a nosedive and the future of the NHS is “precarious”, according to a report published today by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The NHS watchdog reported that staff shortages, rising demand, and increasing numbers of patients with preventable illnesses were putting an excessive strain on NHS services. The result of which has seen a rise in long waits at A&E, more operations being cancelled, and fewer available beds in hospitals and care homes.

The damning report has led to many fearing that the National Health Service may crumble under the pressure, possibly even before it reaches its 70th birthday next year.

UKIP’s health spokesman, Dr Julia Reid MEP, said: “One of the worst things about reading the report is knowing that most of the problems faced by the NHS today were easily preventable.

“The staffing crisis, which is arguably one of the larger issues, could have easily been avoided, but instead of putting in place measures to retain and recruit more staff, the successive Coalition and Tory Governments made it worse.

• All the 17 Labour MEPs present in Strasbourg voted against the following amendment:

"Insists that the EU must not obstruct or delay any negotiations by the UK Government that seek trade agreements with third countries, provided that such agreements are intended to commence on a date after the end of March 2019; "

UKIP Trade Spokesman, William Dartmouth MEP, commented: "The UK should and must seek to make trade deals with third countries.

Labour MEPs have blatantly voted against the UK's national interest. This is a disgrace. The Labour Party should consider their position."

Press Release • Today, the European Parliament voted down several UKIP amendments which explicitly called for the protection of UK fishing waters, scrapping the Brexit bill and ending ECJ jurisdiction in the UK. Conservative and Labour MEPs joined forces to vote down these proposals along with the rest of the Parliament.

Gerard Batten MEP and UKIP Brexit spokesman commented:

“The Conservative government is making some encouraging noises but their MEPs gave the game away today. As usual, the Tories say one thing in the UK but vote for the opposite in the European Parliament.

They are fully prepared to allow European courts to have power over us for years and years to come and submit to EU blackmail over the Brexit bill.”

“We have set out a clear plan to repeal the 1972 European Community Act as soon as possible and ensure a speedy and unencumbered Brexit whilst saving billions and billions in extra EU contributions.”

•Let’s turn the tables on Brexit negotiations by first leaving then utilising the economic strength that Britain possesses to give the EU an economic imperative to speak to the British government on London’s terms, argues Gerard Batten in the UKIP Brexit strategy document released today.

The British economy is as big as the EU’s 20 smallest economies combined. This fact, argues Batten, incentivises the EU to talk turkey with the UK. So let’s seize the initiative and change from being supplicants to the powerful major domo in negotiations.

The British government has got its current negotiating strategy all wrong, argues Batten, and says the UK must seize the initiative and save ourselves a lot of both time and money.

Press Release•Nigel Farage MEP today stressed that regardless of Theresa May’s terrible campaign and pressure from the political establishment the British people still want Brexit and voted overwhelmingly for it last Thursday. He was speaking in the preparations for the European Council debate in Strasbourg and stated the importance of getting on with the negotiations.

Nigel Farage MEP said: “Last Thursday over 85 percent of British voters voted for parties on a manifesto not just of leaving the European Union, but of leaving the Single Market as well. Let me tell you the only certainty in this mess is that we will be leaving.

“Unless Theresa May stands up at the summit next week and at those negotiations and makes it absolutely clear that she’s not giving an inch, that we are leaving the Single Market, unless she does those things her own party will get rid of her and then yet more time will be lost in the Article 50 process.”

• Speaking today in the European Parliament plenary debate in Strasbourg on the European Council’s adopted guidelines for the Brexit negotiations UKIP MEP Nigel Farage labelled Mr Juncker’s behaviour as unacceptable and called for a change of tactics from the EU or the United Kingdom may be forced to walk away from the talks before the end of the year.

Nigel Farage MEP said:

“In any other part of the civilised world frankly that behaviour would be considered to be bloody rude and the act of a bully. Well I’ll tell you something, your attempt to bully the Brits through these negotiations is not working, sixty-eight percent now of the British people want Brexit to happen.”

“Either we get some grown up, reasonable demands from the European Union or the United Kingdom will be forced to walk away before the end of this year. We can’t spend two years with this farce, there is a big, big world out there.”

"MEP Pitera wishes to tell us how to combat fraud across Europe while having written letters at the behest of lawyers now up on a serious fraud charge in Poland. This place is like a circus and that is why people laugh at it and voted for Brexit." - UKIP MEP Jonathan Arnott

Press Release

• The rapporteur on a European Parliament report on combatting fraud wrote at the behest of a group of lawyers, five of whom were arrested on Friday for three months and charged with fraud which cost the Polish tax payer the equivalent of 15 million euro.

Civil Platform MEP Julia Pitera of the EPP group wrote at the request of the lawyers in 2011 to the mayor of Warsaw of the same political party requesting that two named properties be transferred to a specific law firm.

Last week this group of lawyers were arrested and charged by the Polish anti-corruption agency CBA. She has been alleged in the press to have acted as a political puppet of the lawyers.

Today in the European Parliament, the report by MEP Pitera called for greater EU powers, the support for an EU public prosecutor and greater legal harmonisation in order to reduce fraud in EU spending.

The report lays out that fraudulent irregularities cost the EU 637.6 million euro in 2015.